In 1968 a student at a four-year public university could get a minimum-wage job and work just 6.2 hours a week to cover the whole bill for tuition and fees for a semester. Today, a student at the same public university, getting minimum wage, would have to work 40 hours a week, a full-time job, to pay the whole bill. That financial burden limits a lot of options for young people: which school they can afford to attend, the way they spend their college years, and the choices they make after graduation, with debt often dictating their path.

In 1968 a student at a four-year public university could get a minimum-wage job and work just 6.2 hours a week to cover the whole bill for tuition and fees for a semester. Today, a student at the same public university, getting minimum wage, would have to work 40 hours a week, a full-time job, to pay the whole bill. That financial burden limits a lot of options for young people: which school they can afford to attend, the way they spend their college years, and the choices they make after graduation, with debt often dictating their path.